Considering an AMV8 as a daily driver again -few questions

[notax]

The lease on my C63 AMG coupe expires in September and I'm wondering what to replace it with. I would drive about 10k miles pa and spend a lot of my time on the phone and using the satnav. I had a very early 4.3 Vantage as a DD a few years ago and really enjoyed it, I even found the satnav reliable - although the graphics were rubbish! I had a Parrot phone kit fitted though and it never worked as well as I would have liked (not helped by me removing fuse 22)

After the coupe I bought a Vantage S roadster, which had a factory phone and satnav, but as a fun car I never used either.

I have now got used to the very good technology in the C63, do you think a 4.7 Vantage coupe (probably post 2010) would be good enough as a replacement from the phone and satnav point of view..? Any other thoughts? It would be good to have an Aston in my life again! I think I might investigate having an aftermarket switchable exhaust valve this time which might help...

[Speedraser]

To each his own, but for me the phone and the satnav are the two least important items in my Vantage. Admittedly it's not my daily driver, but that wouldn't change my priorities.

[hashluck]

Post 12.5MY cars have a (better not great) Garmin Sat Nav

I use my V8V S as a DD and the Sat Nav is adequate. No real complaints, it does the job.

As for the phone, if you mainly receive calls it is pretty good, again adequate. If you make a lot of calls I would think carefully as the display and ergonomics are not great for scrolling through and finding numbers. That is actually best done on the phone itself but not whilst driving of course.

I came from a tech laden Audi A7 and do not miss any of the whizzy stuff

[timbals]

The car lets you use siri or google now to do voice control of your phone which isn't something I ever managed to do in my 2012 Audi A1 so you can use that to find contacts if they are labelled well.

I have the pre garmin sat nav and don't hate it but I prefer google maps.

[justin220]

I use my 2010 V8 as a daily. Phone is no issues, works just as well as anything else I have used.

Sat Nav is awful. However, I now link my phone up via Bluetooth and use google maps which works really well. (Sound via speakers)

I have also put in the remote fuse 22 switch, again, great simple mod!

[steveatesh]

As above really, if technology in the car is a priority then I don't think the Vantage is the car for you as you will always be comparing it with what you have now.

If however it's the whole thing then no reason why not. The sat nav works, the phone works,. But the wrapper around them is brilliant too.

[mjk1]

timbals said:

The car lets you use siri or google now to do voice control of your phone which isn't something I ever managed to do in my 2012 Audi A1 so you can use that to find contacts if they are labelled well.

I have the pre garmin sat nav and don't hate it but I prefer google maps.

+1

My 06 V8V has the original factory fitted Bluetooth. If I say "phone voice name" it connects with my iPhone 6 Siri which then allows you to voice access the whole contact list in the phone. I've no idea how it does this as the car Bluetooth predates Siri by many years.

I've no complaints about either the Bluetooth or Navigation and both are now over 10 year old technology. Both work and work well.

[petop]

mjk1 said:

+1

My 06 V8V has the original factory fitted Bluetooth. If I say "phone voice name" it connects with my iPhone 6 Siri which then allows you to voice access the whole contact list in the phone. I've no idea how it does this as the car Bluetooth predates Siri by many years.

I've no complaints about either the Bluetooth or Navigation and both are now over 10 year old technology. Both work and work well.

How does this work? Which button do you press? I take it that you use steering wheel controls?

[timbals]

petop said:

How does this work? Which button do you press? I take it that you use steering wheel controls?

Yup. On the steering wheel press call button once, this switches to Phone mode, then hold down the call button and it activates phone voice control.

On an Android phone it will use google voice dialling, there are apps to switch it to use google now.

[mjk1]

petop said:

How does this work? Which button do you press? I take it that you use steering wheel controls?

I just press the call button on the steering wheel and then rather than call one of the pre-programmed names, I just say "phone voice name". This then activates Siri on the iPhone which you hear through the car Bluetooth. You can then just use Siri as normal and ask it to phone anyone in your contacts. The phone call then comes through the car Bluetooth as a normal call. Obviously the phone needs to be connected to the internet via the cellular network otherwise Siri will not work.

[notax]

Thanks, some really interesting info here. I happened to see a Vantage driving through Southampton on Friday night (whilst towing my BMW rally car if it was anyone on here!) and it was in exactly the spec I would choose. 2010 Meteorite coupe, diamond cut wheels, red calipers... looked stunning. I think you guys are doing enough to convince me I should get back into an Aston as my DD so thank you

[damianke]

Thanks to this thread I've discovered that the voice activated phone works with my Android device (Galaxy S4). In AM terms this is space age technology.

Obviously, being an AM, it doesn't work all the time, and you have to make sure the phonebook is sync'd, which only happens when you switch the car on and off twice, but TADTS, apparently. Still impressive when it works.